When Justin Rose pitched in from the rough 50 yards short of the 18th green at Royal Birkdale at the 1998 Open Championship to grab fourth place and low amateur honours, the Fleet St press went nuts as they had found their successor to Nick Faldo.

Buoyed by the finish, he turned professional the next day and he struggled. It actually says a lot for his fighting spirit that he was able to emerge from missing the cut in his first 21 consecutive tournaments to forge a successful career that has now peaked with a major championship victory, albeit 15 years after he set out on the journey as a likely contender in big events.

Rose’s final round at Merion Golf Club to win the US Open by two strokes will be remembered as a see-sawing affair. It will also be hard to forget how it relegated Phil Mickelson to a painful sixth runner-up finish in the championship. Ironically, it was Rose who birdied the final two holes to beat Mickelson in the singles at last year’s ‘Miracle at Medinah’ Ryder Cup.

Mickelson, who was celebrating his 43rd birthday on final round Sunday, was condemned to second place again on the back off Rose’s even par final round that included five bogies, offset by five birdies. Over the brutal closing quartet of holes, Rose was machine-like – hitting fairways and greens and when he missed he recovered with ice cool nerve. On the 72nd hole, his approach trickled through the back of the putting surface into a fluffy lie. Using a fairway wood, he chipped his ball to a tap-in distance from the hole for a par the clubhouse lead at one over.

The US Open field, post 36-hole cut, was unable to record a single birdie on the devilish 18th hole over the weekend and Mickelson was the last man left standing to have a crack. His drive found the wiry rough left of the fairway and he was a 100-1 shot of making three. His approach came up short and his third, a pitch with one of the five wedges he was carrying in his bag, skipped by the hole and his chance at a play-off was gone. With his heart already broken, Mickelson took very little time over the par putt, which he missed, and his 74 saw him drop into a tie for second place with Queenslander Jason Day. Jason Dufner, Open champion Ernie Els, Billy Horschel and Hunter Mahan were a further two shots back.

In winning the US Open, Rose is the first Englishman to win the title since Tony Jacklin did it in 1970. Nick Faldo, of course, was the last Englishman to win a major in the 1996 US Masters.

Interestingly, just 14 days separate the birth dates of this year’s two major champions. Rose was born two weeks after Adam Scott in July 1980.

Rose’s breakthrough major victory at Merion was an emotional one. Seconds after tapping in the final putt, the 32-year-old raised his fingers to the sky in tribute to his father, Ken, who died from leukaemia in 2002.

Hear what Justin Rose had to say about his victory here.